This ride is completed in just three stages of work – Two “Flat Sandwiches” and a simulated run on the beach. The first two stages are the “Flat Sandwiches.” Each sandwich is made up of a hill, a flat, and a hill. They are both approximately 15 minutes long and they are identical in intensity. The first hill is Moderate effort, the flat progresses from Moderate to Hard effort and the second hill moves riders from Hard through to an Anaerobic ending. The goal is to give the second Flat Sandwich equal or better effort and focus than the first.
What would it be like to open your own Indoor Cycling Studio?
I thought you may be interested to know, so I asked Lorie Bickford to tell us about the process of creating (along with her husband Jeff) JoyRide Indoor Cycling Studio in Salem Oregon. We discuss her initial vision, how she found space, how she decided on Schwinn AC Sport Indoor Cycles, working with her new neighbors and how she is promoting her new business to the local Salem community. Bill Pryor and I have been helping Lorie and Jeff with business planning and online marketing of her Indoor Cycling Studio.
This Free Podcast is provided to you through a sponsorship from CyclingFusion.com
Listen to the Podcast below or subscribe for free using
In preparations for this Sunday's LIVE online training I was doing some prep work with Amy's Android phone. Note to self, when it's time to upgrade, stick with a new iPhone 4g if at all possible.
Maybe my frustrations were non-typical, but I found trying to switch worlds from iPhone > Android difficult and a bit frustrating. I got sucked into the the VCast world where Verizon wireless will show me the path to App enlightenment… except it didn't lead me to the place where I could download the stinking Spotify App. I had asked Amy (it's her phone) “how do I get to the Apps store?” I don't know… let's take a look.” Which lead us to the “special” store that Verizon has set up that is missing the most important App under the “Music” heading, which as far as I'm concerned is Spotify.
It's important to note here that I'm a PC guy, but I am slowly understanding the whole MAC thing…
“Abby, can you help me find the Spotify App on your mom's phone?” was very productive. She (Abby is under 25, so she understands both worlds) quickly took me to the Android Marketplace (you'll find it, you just need to scroll down below the deceptive Vcast App World icon) to the “Market Place” where you can search for the Spotify download.
Once (or if) you find it you can down load the Spotify App for your Droid phone.
Once I had the Spotify App installed I was asked to log in… but before I could, I had to approve a somewhat sinister message; Steaming or syncing playlists over your 3g or 4g connection can consume large amounts of data and potentially cost you a king's ransom in digital download fees 🙁
OK, I added that last part about the King myself. But this is important; your Smart Phone (doesn't matter which type) needs to be set properly so any transfers occur via wireless Internet, not a cellular connection. The screen shot I have above shows my iPhone (still trying to learn how to do this with Amy's Android) has syncing over 3g turned off, so I have no fears of going broke paying excessive download fees for syncing music to my iPhone.
This Sunday's LIVE training is over full so I will be scheduling a second very soon. You can click here to join the notification list for future Spotify, iTunes and MixMeister LIVE online training sessions.
Charles (Spook) Hilgartner teaching his class at InSync Cycle
It began as the dream of many Instructors – starting your own fitness business. Charles (Spook) Hilgartner made his dream real by opening the first dedicated indoor cycling studio in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. It was very sad to hear that InSync Cycle Studio closed.
On a personal note:
For the past three years, I have enjoyed the challenge of creating and operating InSync. I have had the pleasure and privilege of meeting and greeting hundreds of riders and making some special friends.This, I will really miss.
But what happened in the studio, during class was really incredible. We have had the best instructors! Their teaching skills and unique styles, music and personalities created an amazing cycling environment that all of us have enjoyed. I thank them for that.
It’s the combination, of instructors and dedicated riders, that has made InSync Cycle Studio a pretty good place to ride.
Some of Spook's Instructors created this very touching video as a good-by.
http://youtu.be/N54Y-N9gJkg
I've known Spook since before InSync and appreciated his agreement to be interviewed on the Podcast. Our intent is to help other existing (and potential) cycling studio owners. We discuss his thoughts and feelings about what he did right… and what he did wrong.
Two main points surfaced during our conversation:
Spook's experiences reinforced the absolute importance of having quality Instructors + a bench of available substitutes.
He feels he would have benefited by having a partner with complimentary skills to his.
I wasn't previously aware of this regulatory issue > Depending on your studio's pricing model, your state or city may require you to secure bonding to protect customers who purchase ride cards with future expiration dates. Spook explains this need for bonding during the interview.
Looking for a used studio sound system? You can contact Spook 444-722-5433 or Spook@indoorcycleinstructor.com
Strategies for protecting the health of your Mac or PC computer, from the malware know as CryptoLocker, isn't really much different from what you do to protect your personal health; you're careful with what you consume and have some insurance in place for when you get sick. As a fitness professional, you depend on your body to earn some or all of your income. If it breaks you're screwed. Your Dept Head will only except you teaching off the bike for so long, before deciding to replace you.
You are also very dependent on your computer for managing your music and communicating through email and social media – so if it fails you have a similar problem.
In case you haven't heard, CryptoLocker is a nasty piece of malware (virus) that can infect your computer – YES, Mac users are just as susceptible as PC owners. CryptoLocker encrypts (scrambles) your files so they can't be opened… ever…by even the NSA… unless you send the hacker $300.00 for the key to unlock the encrypt files.
However, there are trojans out there that have surprising and nasty behaviours like encrypting your files with a password you don’t have and demanding money to unlock them. This kind of malware is not new but over the past 18 months it has become significantly more prevalent and the malware authors have written significantly more clever and scary versions.
This kind of malware is now all over the web and your chances of running in to it and being exploited are uncomfortably high. Some of the more widespread examples such as CryptoLocker even include a count down timer which claims if you don’t pay them $300 in 72 hours they will delete the key file so that your data is lost forever. Malware like this is growing more scary day by day including the ability to encrypt all your data but also to spread over the network and hit other systems.
You can search in vain for a solution, but there is no know remedy to recover your encrypted files if you get infected. Well except bypaying the ransom demanded by the hacker – yes, believe it or not, these are honest hackers. Most do send you the encryption key after they receive your $300.00.
Preventing CryptoLocker – don't click that link!
As scary as it sounds, any link you click could install the CryptoLocker virus (or other malware) on your computer. The trick is not clicking that infection link in the first place. The primary places you find those links is in SPAM email and garbage websites offering free nonsense; games, software and (wait for it) FREE MUSIC DOWNLOADS. Don't go there and you're 50% guaranteed that you won't have to send that $300.00 to recover your 10,000 songs in iTunes.
Long time readers have heard me implore you to use strong passwords for your email accounts. NOTE: you must have listened because I'm seeing far fewer SPAM emails, sent from hacked accounts. CryptoLocker doesn't get installed in your computer by hacking your email, no, but the SPAM emails going to all your friends in your contact list. Most people have learned to ignore an email that says; “Hi there. I saw your picture on facebook and think you're cute. Click this link to see pictures of me!” But a few haven't.
But what if I am infected?
Beyond sending the $300.00, the only known option is to completely wipe your computer clean / restore to factory settings and restore from a backup that predates the infection. If your last manual backup was two years ago – then that's what you'll have to work from. Sorry, there is no other solution 🙁
If you're using an automatic backup service to the cloud; Carbonite, TimeMachine, Windows Backup, etc… you're in luck. All of those services have multiple restore points – you can go back in time to before you were infected, and recover those old, encrypted files. But only after you've first wiped your computer clean so the files you re-import aren't reinfected.
I copied this from Carbonite's help page that explains:
Restoring a previous version of a file lets you correct any accidental changes.
Each day a file is backed up, Carbonite maintains a version of that file.
You can view up to 12 versions of a file to restore (depending on how many times the file was backed up and how long ago it was backed up).
You can restore a file you have deleted from your computer hard drive (as long as the file was deleted within the last 30 days).
